Content descriptions

Summary:

The social chronicle encompasses 1941 to 1959. Coming of age as a shy, unassuming girl of Finnish-American descent, Erkkila conjures up reminiscences about homelife, schools, jobs, fashions, holidays, entertainment, and church in Rockport and Gloucester. One chapter harkens back to her parents' lives during the 1920s and 1930s in Lanesville and Pigeon Cove. The 106-page memoir contains nine chapters, 30 photographs, and an appendix featuring a historical timeline, listing of classmates' nicknames, and information re the Finnish language. There are anecdotes galore, including sliding down snow-covered specially set aside streets on cold starlit nights, using blackout shades during WWII, discovering the "Peyton Place" novel while babysitting, slow dancing at a 1958 New Year's Eve house party to the 45 rpm records the night the Straitsmouth Inn burned down, getting an eight-dollar tip for a cup of java and fruit turnover while waitressing at Oleana Restaurant, crowding into the Korpi Family's little living room to view one of the first TVs in the neighborhood, listening surreptitiously to tidbits on telephone party lines, not locking house doors, leaving a floral bouquet at an elder's door on May Day to celebrate spring, selecting rock 'n roll songs from the little table jukeboxes at the Hesperus Diner in Gloucester, viewing James Dean's "East of Eden" at the drive-in, accompanying mother to Brown's Department Store, Adasko's, Kreske's, Gorin's, and Woolworth's, taking an unforgettable steam train to Boston for the Cisco Kid rodeo, and more.